I’ve got to believe that Randy Johnson’s injury changes the trade landscape for the Giants.

No, it’s not like they’ll start looking for pitching. They still have options for the rotation. Joe Martinez is almost all the way back, Kevin Pucetas had been on a nice run and there’s the two-headed beast of legend, Bumgalderson, (Aldergardner?) lurking somewhere in central Connecticut.

But Johnson’s injury probably makes Jonathan Sanchez a little less expendable. If Brian Sabean uses Sanchez to get a bat, he’ll have to be certain it’s an impact bat.

While Freddy Sanchez is a nice player, he’s not what I’d call an impact bat.

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Perhaps the Giants can get a couple of upgrades like F-dot Sanchez and that’ll add enough offense to keep this team in contention. But what this team really needs is a bona fide OPS threat for the cleanup spot, which would allow them to move Bengie Molina down to sixth or seventh in the lineup.

Tim Kawakami seemed to pick up the same vibe after speaking at length with Sabean on Monday. You can read his column here.

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Molina has done a praiseworthy job while being asked to hit cleanup over the past two seasons, but he’s not a cleanup hitter. He’ll be the first to tell you, too.

Here’s the Giants’ record broken down by who starts as the No.4 hitter:

Molina 35-35
Sandoval 7-2
Aurilia 1-0
Schierholtz 2-0

Do the math. When Bengie doesn’t hit cleanup, the Giants are 10-2.

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Would the Giants take another look at Alex Rios? Jeff Blair, my urbane and witty colleague from the Globe and Mail, wrote recently that the Blue Jays are almost at the “bag of balls stage” to unload Rios’ salary in order to free up cash to re-sign Roy Halladay.

I’ve got the perfect solution. Revisit Rios for Tim Lincecum.

This time, though, Toronto gets a bag of Lincecum-signed baseballs.

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Kevin Frandsen is back in the major leagues, and he’s grateful nobody has to attend a funeral to give him an opportunity. His previous stints came when Juan Uribe and Travis Ishikawa went on the bereavement list.

When I asked how he’d been doing at Fresno (.304, eight homers, 33 RBI in 64 games), he smiled and said, “Same as usual. Hitting into lots of hard outs.”

That was the story of Frandsen’s two brief callups, especially when he started out 0-for-16. Sure enough, he got one at-bat Monday after entering in a double switch, he crushed a line drive to left field … and Chris Coghlan ran it down. The ball was tailing away from Coghlan, too.

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It looks like Frandsen will have a longer stay with the club this time.

“I hope so,” he said. “The first couple times, when I was here three or four days, they said, ‘Play like you’ll stay here.’ But it’s in the back of everybody’s mind that you want to go all-out in those two or three games. You end up putting a lot of pressure on yourself.”

The longer Frandsen played this year, the more he loosened up. He missed virtually all of last season, remember. He couldn’t experience the simple joy of playing nine innings, whether it’s in AT&T Park or Fresno’s 110-degree heat.

Frandsen even was asked to play two games at first base, a position he’d never played in his life. Jesus Guzman got hit in the face during batting practice and had to miss two games. So Frandsen borrowed Guzman’s glove, and what do you know, he recorded putouts on five double plays in his first start.

“Had to dig one out, too,” he said.

Frandsen also was proud of a diving tag he made after a Salt Lake player tried to bunt for a single against him.

“Yeah,” Frandsen said. “But I didn’t enjoy holding a runner on at first base with a lefty up. And the third game of that series, when I went back to short, I felt I couldn’t move because I was so stretched out.”
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Andres Torres and Nate Schierholtz threw out baserunners to end the third and fourth innings, respectively. Just more evidence that the Giants’ outfield defense has been nothing short of phenomenal this season.

The infield defense? Well …

Edgar Renteria booted a routine grounder to open the door to a two-run sixth inning – Florida’s only runs against Matt Cain.

That one wasn’t so concerning, though. All season, Renteria has been very surehanded on anything hit reasonably close to him.

It’s the play in the ninth that should have the Giants worried. Jeff Baker hit a little jam shot over Renteria’s head. It was the kind of ball that spun in the air long enough for many shortstops to run underneath it. Lord knows we’ve seen Omar Vizquel do it a thousand times.

But Renteria couldn’t flag it down, compounding what almost was a disastrous inning for Brian Wilson.

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Bruce Bochy is not a quote machine, but he might’ve had his best line of the year when describing Wilson’s ninth.

“I guess you get a save for that,” Bochy said.

In Wilson’s defense, the Marlins didn’t hit him hard as they scored two runs while nearly overcoming a 5-2 deficit. Baker’s bloop would’ve been caught by an above-average shortstop and Wes Helms got another jam shot to fall in. Yes, Wilson walked Ross Gload, but only after a long at-bat with several fouls. Gload earned the walk.

I’ll stop defending Wilson right there, though. Chris Coghlan hit a sharp comebacker and Wilson had the play right in front of him. Easy 1-2-3 double play. Except Wilson threw to second base – where nobody was covering, by the way – and Renteria actually deserves credit for making a nice play just to get one out. He almost got two.

”Full moon, huh?” Wilson said. “I don’t know. … I was foolish. We all have those moments. Just not everybody has them in the ninth inning. It’s cool.”

Only because Wilson got one more comebacker from Emilio Bonifacio. If he hadn’t, the inning would’ve been all sorts of things. Cool would not be an accurate description.

Asked if these kinds of saves were rewarding in a sense, Wilson said, “No, it’s not rewarding to getting hit around and walking guys. But to finish the game is the ultimate goal.”

Wilson almost didn’t finish the game, though. Or didn’t you notice Sergio Romo warming up behind him? That’s a pretty stern sign on a team when the closer role is sharply defined.

Most managers let their closer go until they lose the lead, but Bochy said that Bonifacio, bar none, would’ve been Wilson’s last hitter. Romo would’ve entered the game at that point. That’s not to say there’s a closer controversy. It had more to do with Wilson’s pitch count (37) than anything else.

That said, we’ll see if Wilson is available to pitch Tuesday.

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Giants broadcaster Erwin Higueros was inspired by an earlier blog entry to conduct some definitive research. He confirmed that the Giants had been 6-0 while wearing “Gigantes” jerseys before they lost two weeks ago at Milwaukee.

“But we’re still undefeated at home,” Higueros said.

Andrew Baggarly

Andrew Baggarly has documented the most eventful era in San Francisco Giants baseball history, having covered the team since 2004 for th​ree major media outlets including the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune​. This is his 20th season as a baseball writer.
​Baggarly is the author of the bestselling book, A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants, and the newly published Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay. Baggarly’s other notable life accomplishments include running as the Bratwurst in the Milwaukee Sausage Race and becoming a three-time Jeopardy! champion.